Fertile at Forty – Tips for Getting Pregnant After 40

Women in their 40s generally delay pregnancy to pursue career goals and enjoy financial stability. These women have stable jobs, ensuring a financially secure future for their children.

However, there are trade-offs. Getting pregnant after 40 is not that easy to do. Several studies conducted in populations that do not practice contraception have shown that there is a sharp decline in pregnancy rates once the age of 35 is reached. Although age is just a number, this is not true when it comes to reproductive function.

What about all those celebrities who have successfully conceived in their 40s? Fertility doctors warn us to look beyond the glitter of these celebrity moms. Some of these women have undergone assisted reproduction. Fertility doctors want women who have undergone this technology to be more forthcoming to disprove the myth that women can delay pregnancy until they are in their 40s without significant risk.

For moms-to-be, here are some tips for getting pregnant after 40:

1. Keep your body healthy. A healthy body ensures that your hormone levels are at normal levels. Keeping the hormones estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone at optimal levels at each stage of your menstrual cycle ensures ovulation.
2. As a caveat to tip number 1, maintain your ideal body weight. A body weight for height, or body mass index, of 22 to 25 is optimal for getting pregnant. Being overfed or undernourished wreaks havoc on your hormones. Some women who are too fat or too thin have irregular monthly cycles. Some have stopped having periods altogether, a condition called amenorrhea. Irregular or absent menstrual periods are presumptive signs that you are not ovulating. This is definitely not a good sign.
3. Supplement with vitamins and minerals. If you plan to get pregnant, stock up on folic acid at least 3 months before you get pregnant. She then continues to take this micronutrient for the first 3 months of her pregnancy. Taking at least 400 micrograms of folic acid a day before and during pregnancy reduces the risks of neural tube defects.
4. Stop smoking. Cigarette smoke damages the tubes, preventing fertilization. Smoking also has a detrimental effect on the ovaries, accelerating the loss of ovarian reserves. You must take care of your remaining reserves, not lose them.
5. Stop drinking coffee and alcoholic beverages. Data is conflicting on how much of these drinks constitute too much. Some say 2 cups of coffee do harm, others would say 6 cups. The same goes for alcohol. Some studies show that even one glass of wine a week can negatively affect fertility. To be on the safe side, abstain completely from these drinks, if you can.
6. Schedule your sexual relationship. There is no accurate way to predict when ovulation occurs. However, you can use a combination of these methods to increase your chances of getting it right: monitoring your basal body temperature, checking your cervical mucus, and counting days based on the length of your menstrual period. An increase in basal body temperature suggests ovulation. The presence of clear, sticky mucus similar to egg white also suggests ovulation. Counting day 14 from the onset of menstruation in women with a 28-day cycle also suggests ovulation. Combining these 3 methods increases your chances of accurately predicting ovulation.